Now for the fun part! We've spent the last few weeks considering our community, our policies and our existing collection. You've made the case as to why you should get additional $ to buy new books. What are you going to buy?
Mona Kerby states, "In library school, I memorized a hundred professional selection sources. But let's stick to the magic number of three. In my opinion, no matter how poor your school district is, you have current subscriptions to the following three professional sources: Booklist and Booklist Online, Horn Book Guide, and School Library Journal. These three provide an excellent balance of opinions. Some of my students who are practicing school library media specialists prefer Book Links” (10).
I agree with Ms. Kerby on three sources, however, I prefer to use The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books published by the University of Illinois, School Library Journal and Horn Book. You too will develop your preferred set of resources. What’s most important is that you use highly regarded sources such as those discussed during our face-to-face session on Oct. 12.
Reading
Kerby, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 (reading should be done before the face-to-face session on Oct. 12.)
If you have not established a Titlewave account, you’ll want to consider doing that. (www.titlewave.com)
Task
Choose two new fiction or informational books (published w/in last 2 years, if possible, but I'm flexible on this) that you are unfamiliar with. You'll need to actually get your hands on the books, so pick titles your school or public library library has or can obtain for you if you don't want to purchase them.
First, find at least two reviews on the book. Make sure at least one review for each title is from a reputable print review source like those listed below. The second review can also be from one of these sources, or it can be from a blog (see below for a few examples, but there are many more out there). The blog should be written by an adult reviewer with some experience/insight into materials for young people.
Be sure you have the complete original review; don’t rely on a secondary source like Barnes & Noble to give you a full text review. B&N and Amazon can help lead you to reviews, but try to make sure you find the original source. To find reviews, check out the review databases subscribed to by the NLU library and/or vendor sites, like Follet's Titlewave (school libraries), BWI's Titletales (public libraries) and Baker & Taylor.
Now, read the reviews on the books. Do this before you actually read the books!
If you had to choose between purchasing these two books based on their reviews, which would you pick? Why?
Next, read/examine the actual books. Appraise how well the reviewers did. Include the following three points in your appraisal:
1. Would you still make the same purchase decision after seeing the books?
2. What did the reviews highlight that was most helpful in guiding a purchase decision? Did they focus on the same features?
3. What (if any) pertinent information did they miss completely?
4. Do you agree with their assessment of the target audience age/grade?
5. If you used a review from a blog, was it more or less useful than the formal review? What were your feelings about using this "informal" review source?
IMPORTANT: Include a URL to the review OR copy and paste the text of the reviews into your posting.
Potential Review Sources:
Booklist
Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
The Bulletin of the Center For Children’s Books
VOYA
Potential Blogs: This is a short list of just a few familiar blogs. If you know of or find others, feel free to use them, as long as you feel the author has some knowledge of books & kids.
Week 5 Selection – Post Oct. 12
Now for the fun part! We've spent the last few weeks considering our community, our policies and our existing collection. You've made the case as to why you should get additional $ to buy new books. What are you going to buy?
Mona Kerby states, "In library school, I memorized a hundred professional selection sources. But let's stick to the magic number of three. In my opinion, no matter how poor your school district is, you have current subscriptions to the following three professional sources: Booklist and Booklist Online, Horn Book Guide, and School Library Journal. These three provide an excellent balance of opinions. Some of my students who are practicing school library media specialists prefer Book Links” (10).
I agree with Ms. Kerby on three sources, however, I prefer to use The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books published by the University of Illinois, School Library Journal and Horn Book. You too will develop your preferred set of resources. What’s most important is that you use highly regarded sources such as those discussed during our face-to-face session on Oct. 12.
Reading
Kerby, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 (reading should be done before the face-to-face session on Oct. 12.)
If you have not established a Titlewave account, you’ll want to consider doing that. (www.titlewave.com)
Task
Choose two new fiction or informational books (published w/in last 2 years, if possible, but I'm flexible on this) that you are unfamiliar with. You'll need to actually get your hands on the books, so pick titles your school or public library library has or can obtain for you if you don't want to purchase them.
First, find at least two reviews on the book. Make sure at least one review for each title is from a reputable print review source like those listed below. The second review can also be from one of these sources, or it can be from a blog (see below for a few examples, but there are many more out there). The blog should be written by an adult reviewer with some experience/insight into materials for young people.
Be sure you have the complete original review; don’t rely on a secondary source like Barnes & Noble to give you a full text review. B&N and Amazon can help lead you to reviews, but try to make sure you find the original source. To find reviews, check out the review databases subscribed to by the NLU library and/or vendor sites, like Follet's Titlewave (school libraries), BWI's Titletales (public libraries) and Baker & Taylor.
Now, read the reviews on the books. Do this before you actually read the books!
If you had to choose between purchasing these two books based on their reviews, which would you pick? Why?
Next, read/examine the actual books. Appraise how well the reviewers did. Include the following three points in your appraisal:
1. Would you still make the same purchase decision after seeing the books?
2. What did the reviews highlight that was most helpful in guiding a purchase decision? Did they focus on the same features?
3. What (if any) pertinent information did they miss completely?
4. Do you agree with their assessment of the target audience age/grade?
5. If you used a review from a blog, was it more or less useful than the formal review? What were your feelings about using this "informal" review source?
IMPORTANT: Include a URL to the review OR copy and paste the text of the reviews into your posting.
Potential Review Sources:
Booklist
Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
The Bulletin of the Center For Children’s Books
VOYA
Potential Blogs: This is a short list of just a few familiar blogs. If you know of or find others, feel free to use them, as long as you feel the author has some knowledge of books & kids.
Biblio File
Bookshelves of Doom
Brown Bookshelf
A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids)
Shelf Elf
Discussion Post
Your initial post will be your appraisal of the reviews. In you post you'll want to discuss your experience with the task outlined above.
Assignments
Email online discussion self-assessment score for Week 4. Due 10/15/11.